Published time: May 18, 2013 16:29
Terrorist attacks on Turkish soil won’t stop until the country’s Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, gives up on his support of rebel forces in Syria, British broadcaster, Neil Clark, told RT.
Turkish police have fired tear gas at protesters in a town near
the Syrian border, which was the scene of a deadly double car
bombing a week ago.
Demonstrators are angry over Ankara’s support for the Syrian
rebels, which they say is putting Turkey in the firing line.
World affairs journalist and broadcaster, Neil Clark, believes
Erdogan must reconsider his policies and stop accusing the Syrian
government of targeting the Hatay province, as it would’ve been an
“absolutely absurd” move from Damascus.
RT: Tension and discontent on the Turkish-Syrian border
is now escalating – what ramifications could this have?
Neil Clark: I think if I were Turkish I would be protesting
too, because Mr Erdogan has made colossal blunder here because in
August 2011 he took the line he’s going to play a leading role in
trying to topple the Syrian government. He allowed rebels to be
based in the country. His government gave arms to them and
equipment. And now it’s sort of a blowback time. We had some
terrible bombings in Turkey this week and this will only continue,
until Turkey changes course in relation to Syria.
RT: Turkey maintains Syria was responsible for last
weekend’s bombing of a Turkish town that left more than 50 dead,
but why would Damascus orchestrate a cross-border attack?
NC: It’ll be absolutely suicidal for Syrian president
[Bashar] Assad to order an attack on Turkey, knowing that very
powerful countries in the West are just itching for an excuse to
militarily attack the country, to bomb the country. So the last
thing would be doing is trying to bomb Turkey. It’s absolutely
absurd. I don’t know who was responsible for these bombings, but
it’s clear that what Erdogan has done has actually involved Turkey
in this war. He’s brought the war to Turkey. And understandable the
Turkish citizens — not just those on the border with Syria, but
throughout the country — are getting increasingly angry and they
demand that he changes his course.
RT: Turkey has made it clear it doesn’t want to get
directly involved in Syria, but has pledged to respond to the
bombings. What action could we see?
NC: We haven’t got any evidence as to who’s responsible for
these bombings. And I think Erdogan has to seriously reconsider his
entire policies, because all he’s doing is increasing the tension
here by backing the rebels. He took a gamble in August 2011
believing that the Syrian government would fall very shortly and
that there’ll be a very nice Islamist government in power in
Damascus that’ll be very friendly to Turkey. It backfired. It
hasn’t happened. And I think that the position, Turkey is in, is
getting worse and worse. I hope I’m wrong, but we’re going to see
more bombings, I’m afraid. Because the war has been brought to
Turkey and, of course, the rebels themselves are fighting among
themselves — the radical Islamists, the not so radical Islamists.
It’s all happening in Turkey.
RT: An international conference on Syria — endorsed by
Russia and the US — is expected soon. What results can we
expect?
NC: It all depends on the stance of the US and its allies.
Because if they’re still going to carry on with this rhetoric, this
Assad must go, we’re not going to get any progress, are we? The
people, who are pouring the petrol on the fire, the countries like
the US and Turkey, have got to change their position. It’s no use
that they’re having a conference, if they’re still going to back
the rebels. They’re still saying that the Syrian people could
decide the government they want as long as Assad goes. That’s not
democracy, is it? It’s up to the Syrian people alone. It’s up to
US, Qatar, Turkey to stop interfering in Syria.
This article originally appeared on : RT